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Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

newsweek.com

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Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#141

Post by dguaraglia »

chrisjharris wrote: post #16

Frequently I feel that there is a conflation of the inherent attributes of a platform like Gab or Parler, and its user base. Though they may pitch themselves at a certian audience, social media platforms don't ultimately get to choose their users, and I'm not sure to what extent it is fair to judge them by their users. If we do judge them by their users (and I don't mean to sound like I'm criticizing Gab/Parler users…

Well, in the case of Parler it was literally funded to provide a voice to all those people banned from Twitter for saying shitty things. And Gab's founder got kicked out of Y Combinator for being a racist asshole.

So I'd say in this case, the social networks most definitely chose their users.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#142

Post by [deleted] »

paperwasp42 wrote: post #22
D13Fd wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly don't know why people use "post what you're thinking" style social media at all at this point. With employers being so sensitive, how can the cost/benefit analysis ever really result in a determination that it's a good idea to be active on Twitter/Facebook (or Gab, Parler, TheDonald.win, etc.)? Maybe that's part of what makes things get so extreme on those sites. The most reasonable people know enough not…

I have literally seen NYT bestselling authors talk about how they're super excited to publicly heckle an author at his next book signing. And join in on conversations promoting burning his book. His crime? Writing a female character who goes on the run, has limited food, and trains in martial arts--which leads to her losing weight. This was, apparently, fat-shaming and deeply sexist. The authors involved in these thr…

[deleted]

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#144

Post by dguaraglia »

neartheplain wrote: post #138
dguaraglia wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, get out of here with your nuanced and fair analysis! Don't you realize we just want reasons to be outraged about the 'cancel culture'?

The author and her family received death threats over this. She briefly left the US for her own safety, and was harassed and bullied “to the brink of suicide.” Flippant dismissal of the Internet hate mob is all well and good until it comes for you. The Metro employee faced no disciplinary action. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tasneemnashrulla/dc-met...

I fail to see how the author's plight at the hands of the internet mob makes the situation less nuanced.

Flippant dismissal of facts isn't going to help things get better either.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#145

Post by Barrin92 »

nilkn wrote: post #119
hapless wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth noting that Frederick's employees quit -- her statements on twitter angered her staff so much they no longer wished to associate with her. That's not cancel culture. That's common sense. Don't make your coworkers so angry that they'd rather be jobless than spend time in your presence. The freedom of speech isn't the freedom to speak without consequences. Frederick spoke her mind in a public square, and sig…

This line of reasoning breaks down whenever a population is experiencing any form of mass hysteria, and I think there's a reasonable argument that the US is very much in the midst of such a phenomenon right now. Indeed, that was the point of the example being provided by the poster you replied to: her staff quit because they acted based on a hysterical rather than rational analysis of the situation. They didn't break…

I don't really see where the mass or the hysteria is. It's an individual business parting with an employee because the views shared in public are likely going to harm the business.

Happens probably every day somewhere, why has this even become noteworthy?

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#146

Post by filmgirlcw »

neartheplain wrote: post #128
filmgirlcw wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m very much against people being fired for their social media posts (unless we’re crossing way over a line that delves into calls for violence or is doing something illegal), but that situation was a bit more complicated. That author, who was PR professional and verified on Twitter, was using her account and her blue-checkmark to shame a worker on a train for eating on her break. She literally tried to get that emp…

You’ve gone and assumed the worst. “Trying to get that employee fired?” I just don’t see it. Anyway, the Metro employees union would never go for it. The no-eating rule is a fairly big deal on Metro. A twelve-year-old girl was famously arrested for eating a single French fry [0], in a case (Hedgepeth v. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority) that went all the way to the U.S. Court of Appeals, where the arres…

I’m not defending the vitriol or racist and toxic remarks she received; I’m saying she was using her position as a blue checkmark to publicly shame someone and to try to get them fired. And as a self-described social media and communications expert, she should have known that using her position of power to shame/snitch on someone could carry consequences. She could have reported it privately, but she chose to use her platform that included her social status (most brands and orgs like the metro use CRMs to filter/prioritize responses from verified users, something someone who claims to be a social media strategist would know) to be a narc instead.

Moreover, the Metro had been ordered to cease citing people for jumping fares or eating on the train in 2019. I appreciate the author may not have known that. She still had no reason to use her clout to publish a photo of the employee and call her her to be punished. She was literally snitching someone and then cried tears of sorrow when she was snitched on back. I’m really struggling to garner sympathy in this particular case, although again, I don’t defend or condone the hate she received in return.

She also sued the publisher (an extremely small outfit with two employees) over canceling her book and they wound up publishing it anyway out of fear of litigation. She also tried to sue the distributor (Rare Bird, which is also small), who she didn’t have a contract with (these were the people that commented publicly they wouldn’t distribute it), but wound up dropping the case. I’m not trying to drag her for having a book deal with a boutique imprint, I just think it’s important to realize that this wasn’t Hachette or Simon & Schuster, this was an imprint with two employees.

And she then leveraged her experience to get positive international coverage/redemption arc. And you know what, if GMA and Elle UK want to buy into her narrative, kudos to her for selling it. But it really goes against the idea that her life was ruined, when again, she was able to place sympathetic stories about herself with Hearst (Elle UK) and ABC News (GMA).

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#147

Post by esja »

_o0rc wrote: post #121
snicker7 wrote: post #73

At this point, companies might as well just have an explicit policy of not hiring anyone registered as a Republican. Party affiliation is not a protected class, after all.

As pointed out below, there are some states where politics are protected. I looked it up because I do plan to use that information in hiring decisions going forward. I wouldn't surprised if I get downvoted for this, but I intend to ask anyone I interview in the future (not currently in a role that involves hiring) if they voted for Trump in 2020. And a yes will be a disqualifying answer on the basis of poor judgement…

Something to ponder given the topic of this thread... your comment says very clearly that you're willing to make decisions which impact a company negatively, provided they benefit you emotionally. That's disqualifying for most positions involving hiring or any other management responsibility, and it's connected to your real identity.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#148

Post by tptacek »

marton78 wrote: post #139
forgingahead wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are the facts in the story false?

The claim is probably "they're likely false, please exercise caution"

I have no idea if they're false. It's a phoned-in article about a series of tweets. I wrote a comment about "Newsweek", not about the particulars of the post. "Newsweek" is essentially an SEO scam, is the point I'm making, the same way we'd point it out if a scraped blog post was blogspam.
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